From the latest issue of Critical Public Health
Best wishes
David McDaid
LSE Health and Social Care
Critical Public Health
Volume 13, Number 1/2003: pp61-76
Tackling health inequalities and the HAZ Smoking Cessation Programme: the
perfect match? Susan E Woods A1, Jeffrey R Lake A2, Jane Springett A1 A1
Institute for Health, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK
A2 Singapore Health Promotion Board, Singapore
Abstract: This paper provides a critique of the present organization of the
UK government's smoking cessation programme, examining the impact of policy
on smoking cessation services. Using a case study of a new cessation
service that was set up as a Health Action Zone (HAZ) programme, it argues
that HAZ-based cessation services that have developed in light of the
Smoking Kills White Paper fail to prioritize the needs of the most
disadvantaged in society and, hence, may actually serve to exacerbate
health inequalities. Attention is directed to two particular concerns.
First, the Department of Health guidelines for smoking cessation provide
quite prescriptive directions as to the nature of service implementation,
restricting the ability of services to develop service models to meet the
needs of disadvantaged groups. Second, although supposedly intended to
promote locally innovative solutions to tackle health problems such as
smoking, the imposition of government controls in HAZ programmes has
militated against such innovation. As a result, whilst there is little
available evidence as to which approaches to smoking cessation may be most
effective specifically in disadvantaged communities, there is little scope
for experimentation in this area and a clear opportunity is being missed
both to develop local creativity in addressing health concerns and to
specifically address the needs of the disadvantaged groups.
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